BuzzerBeater Forums

Hi guys,
In the light of your recent great work on improving many respects of the game lately, I thought it might be time to change the structure of the European championship as well.

We currently have 48 National teams in Europe, 21 each in America and Asia, and 8 in Africa.
On the America and Asia competitions, 12 out of the 21 are moving to the second level of the competition. In Africa, 6 out of 8. In Europe, it's also 12, but out of 48.
Moving it to percentage, the difference is huge:
75% in Africa,
57% in Asia,
57% in America,
25% in Europe.
I find these terms extremely discriminating for European countries, making the European championship much harder competition than the other championships. That's before even mentioning that most of the biggest and strongest communities in the game are in Europe.

I think it's also actually hurting the level of the European championship itself. Teams are putting a lot of effort to even get to the second stage, getting there with no enthusiasm and getting hammered by stronger teams, while other stronger teams who try to save enthusiasm to succeed later in the competition get eliminated early. Sometimes the difference is more about luck with the group you were drawn to than anything else.

And yes, the fact that I'm the manager of the Israeli national team who won the world cup last season and was unable to qualify to the second stage was very frustrating to me and led me to suggest it. But I think the fact both things happened kind of speaks for itself. And it didn't happen only to us. Actually, over the last 3 European championships, a team that got to the Final in the previous world cup was eliminated during the first stage. In season 51 it was Lietuva (and Poland which reached the semi-finals) and in season 53 it was Nederland (And France who reached the semi Finals). I didn't even go more back but I don't really think there's a need. The system is broken and it's time to change it.

This structure which makes it so much harder to get to the second stage is not only a matter of the failure of winning trophies. It also hurts the managers who train and have NT players on their Squad. Playing so many scrimmages instead of competitive matches hurt the managers financially for getting less merchandise, hurt the players for getting less experience. It also hurt the communities since it makes people lose interest in their national team games, which is a bad thing also for the game imo.
I just find it unfair that 57% of the nations in Asia and America will play 11 competitive games a year, while 75% of the nations in Europe will only play 7. That's a very significant difference.

I had a few structures in mind and in the end, I liked this one the best, but I would love any new build that will change the way things are being done today. So my idea is:

We'll still have 6 groups of 8 teams, playing 7 games against each other.
After those games, 4 teams from each group will qualify for the next stage, creating 3 groups of 8 teams. Just mentioning that 24 out of 48 is still a lower percentage compared to the other continents, but a one I found much more reasonable.

On the next group stage, each team will continue with the teams it played with. The 4 qualified from group A will play with the four qualified from group B etc. The teams will carry over their matches results with the teams that qualified with them similar to what we have today in the world cup.
They will play against the 4 new opponents in their group. The first two places on each group and the two best 3rd places will go to the quarter-finals that will be played as knock-out games.
The 3rd place we didn't qualify to the quarter-finals will at least qualify to the repechage tournament if the world cup will increase to 16 teams indeed.

I would love to hear your thoughts or ideas for different structure. I'm not sure my structure change is the best possibility, but I'm sure that a change is needed.

Just a quick mock up about the solution:

First stage - 8 groups of 6 teams, 5 matches per team, 3 per group moves to the next stage, 24 teams total

Second stage - 4 groups of 6 teams, 5 matches per team, 2 per group moves to the quarter finals, 8 teams total

Playoff stage - Quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, 3 matches max.


Personally I would like to see quarterfinals too because what's better than playoff matches. This solution would allow quarter finals to be added while not adding extra games. 13 matches total would allow us to get rid of that extra Friday semifinal as well. 13 match season alongside with adding quarterfinals would allow the 'playoff-hype' to last 3 weeks instead of 1. I've always felt like the playoffs were very rushed so this would be a good solution to that as well.

Although just an idea, seems like this would make a lot of sense to me and would allow many countries to continue their competitive season at least 3 matches longer.

I don't think you are aware of that but in Asia and America they have a week "bye" because the first round is composed by 3 pools of 7. So in fact america teams and asia teams play a maximum of 13 games for 14 in Europe.

I'm not sure the continental tournaments need a change, it's a minor priority in my mind, because I'm not sure to understand why it's unfair for Europe. We have the same number of countries in the second round and we have one more game in the first round that in Asia and America (Africa has more but comparing Africa and Europe is not relevant). Of course there are more teams out after the first round but I don't see why it's a problem.

And if something has to be changed it's not in Europe but in Asia and America to remove the week "bye". And the only way to achieve that is to remove countries.

Joe

Why do you assume that I'm unaware of it? I wrote that most of the teams on these continents will have 11 games, which are 6 on the first stage and 5 on the second one.

There are 4 times more team out after the first round. Which hurt experience gain, make half of the season extremely boring for 75% of the teams in Europe, and also hurt the level of the second round itself. The second round repeatedly is missing some of the best teams in the continent due to the very weird build we have. On every European championship there are few weaker teams that get to the second stage where they have nothing to sell just because they used their enthusiasm to even get there, while better teams stays out. Every single time. I don't see it as a good structure. I have nothing against those teams of course, I did the same thing few seasons back and will do it again if I'll have to. But I do want the best teams on the later stages, and it's not the situation.

And by the way, if you'll increase the number of teams on the second teams those weaker teams will still get there, but without having to spend ent and to get in a much weaker position. They might be even able to pull some surprises and get a medal, which just never happens on this build. So it's a build that let underdogs get to the prestige second stage on the expense of contenders, just to do nothing there.